Wednesday, September 21, 2011

More Recognition

Wow. No posts for months and now you get three in three days! My "Steam Punk Bathroom" got some web recognition back in July and I am finally getting around to mentioning it on this blog.

1800recycling.com posts articles about reusing materials and keeping them out of the landfill. There is also a search by zip code feature that informs you where you can take certain types of recyclable products. Try it out!

To all my Facebook Friends, these ramblings are posted to my houseblog at http://www.thisoldcrackhouse.blogspot.com and get fed to my Facebook account so that they appear as Facebook posts and not as posts to a blog page. To see the posts you need to click the "view original post" link next to comments. Some of the links and video don't work through Facebook.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

You Know it is Getting Colder When ....

You know it is getting colder when 8 tons of wood pellets are delivered to your house and you need to move them to the basement! Eight tons arrived last Wednesday. Have already moved five tons to my basement.You know, last year we had 8 tons delivered and I had to move them. All I can think of is this song ....

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Added Cost of Screen Doors

Way back in June 2002 I took all the siding off the outside of the kitchen and wrote about it on my web page at that time. Then 7 years later we experienced the great termite invasion of 2009.I never realized that it has been two years that I have lived without gutters on the kitchen. The lack of gutters has posed a few problems for us over the years.

Anyway. Since the weather has not cooperated with my schedule to do more work on my roof, I have embarked on getting things done to the outside of the kitchen. The last post indicated that the addition of screen doors meant that the color scheme was due to be changed. Well, I just have one more coat of paint to put around the windows and something has to be done with the 8 inch space near the ground but here is the back of the house now. Complete with screen door!

As you can see in this photo I have a new toy to ride around on.

This one is a bit blurry but it says "Elvis 150" on the side. Never thought I would own own anything with "Elvis" on it .........

Monday, September 05, 2011

The Roof and Other Projects

Since I haven't been able to finish the roofing project this year because of the wettest spring in decades and then some 30 days of 90+ degree weather this summer and the lack of 4 consecutive days without rain at 80 degrees or below, I decided to take on some lesser projects.The first was putting in a window well and a replacement window in the front of the main house.

This window project came about after tearing off the front porch last September. Once we did that it exposed an old window opening that was below grade. My box gutter work fixed the leaks in the back that flooded the basement but now water and dirt was coming into the front room of the basement so I had to put this in. I have since inserted a water faucet through the framing so now that it is September, I can water the front yard. (After everything has shriveled and died.) I have put an electrical box on the opposite side of the frame but haven't connected it yet. Maybe I can have that done before Halloween. I was forced to reorganize the basement in order to access this window. That project was 10 years overdue. This meant sorting through a pile of scrap copper and fittings which I still have to take to the scrap yard. Now here is the funny plumbing story because anyone who has followed this blog knows that I can't do plumbing without a leak. I connected a PEX line to an existing shut-off valve and ran it to the faucet set up. All I had to do was turn on the valve and watch for my PEX to leak at a connection. Well, I turned the valve which has been off for only 10 years ....

Water started pouring out of the valve and shutting off wasn't working. So I had to shut the water off to the whole house and figure out what to do. Of course the valve was now in an awkward spot since the furnace duct-work was installed adjacent to it last fall. It was fortunate that I had not taken the metal to the scrap yard because I was able to reconstruct the valve from old parts in a bucket! The rubber had deteriorated in the original valve. Needless to say a simple project took an hour longer than planned. I really hate plumbing .......

Next I'll tell you how my screen door project has forced me to re-paint the outside of the kitchen. Here is the view the wife has been yearning for. Something about a cross breeze she says ....